My business has a Facebook page, so do I also need Twitter?

When in business we get our best business from building strong relationships with potential clients. Social media allows us to tap into markets that we might not have otherwise been able to generate relationships with using traditional business development avenues.

Twitter is the chattiest social media avenue and allows businesses to get their point across to followers and clients in 140 characters or less.

A few quality tweets a day varying between industry related, promotional and conversational are recommended, however if you cannot manage the few a day keeping your feed updated at least a few times a week is ideal – however be careful not to send out spammy messages or messages about yourself, as these sorts of tweets are sure to lose you followers.

Twitter can serve as a SEO tool as links and click throughs provide businesses search value. Twitter is also an excellent tool for generating a brand identity and presence beyond your current marketing and brand strategy, it can put your business name and brand in front of thousands of consumers who might not have had access to you as well as allowing your customer service to extend beyond the four walls of your office or via telephone conversions.

Twitter can allow you to keep customers in the loop with business issues such as product shipment delay or technology downtime even.

Twitter allows business and tweeters to follow trending topics, as well as allows industry professionals to share their areas of expertise.

Be careful not to push your brand or product on people or to come across to desperate! There is a fine line between social media business promotion and a cry for help.

There are a number of social media tools on the market that can make your social media posts easy to manage and schedule.

Twitter can work hand in hand with Facebook, blogging, email marketing campaigns and any external marketing strategies that your business might have in place already.